A New Method for the Measurement of the Site Errors of a Lightning Direction-Finder: Description and First Results

Abstract

One of the major limitations in the use of magnetic direction-finders for locating lightning is the presence of systematic angle errors that are due to the local antenna site. An attempt was made to measure this systematic error, by using a reciprocal method, i.e., interchanging the rôles of transmitter and receiver. The correction functions obtained in this way were tested and partially improved. After applying a correction for site errors, we improved significantly the lightning localization accuracy, but there remained a residual error, partly because of the geometry of the lightning localization network.